Graduation daze
Statements like this are reminders that the booing of commencement speakers often has a lot to do with arrogance and tone. But it's also true that students of the center and the right are less likely to remain silent and docile about life on the leftist-dominated campus. These students have endured so much PC indoctrination for four years that a speech filled with ideological drivel on the last day is the last straw.
My daughter held a phone to my ear the other day. All I heard was a lot of booing, which turned out to be a reaction of some Ithaca College students and parents to commencement speakers Ben and Jerry, the foreign policy experts and ice cream makers. Ben attacked war in general (he seemed to notice that the war in Iraq was over) and called for less military spending. The students didn't mount a major rebellion. A few new graduates walked out. There were six or seven heated confrontations that never developed into fights, and several students started a "Bomb France" chant to irritate the leftist ice creamers.
Phil Donahue got some boos for urging graduates at North Carolina State to "bring America back to basic constitutional values" and to stress civility rather than a "trend to the sword." No big deal, just an indicator that students today, trained at Internet speed, are inclined to react quickly to provocations, large and small. My guess is that the booing of commencement speakers will become a routine reaction to pomposity, gassy ideology (call it Hedgesism), or the failure to comprehend that the day is about students. Good.
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